Sptinal Tenis Ball

Kuraray has worked with Spalding, the official supplier of the NBA Game Ball, on the development and improvement of man-made leather for basketballs for the past 20 years. Spalding has already adopted CLARINO man-made leather for the official game balls of the NBADL (National Basketball Association Development League) and the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association), and it was used for the game balls for the 2006 NBA All-Star Game held in Houston, Texas.

Spalding, which has been the official supplier of the Game Ball since 1983, will continue to produce all the balls for NBA practice, exhibitions, games and international competition. It also holds the exclusive right to produce and sell a complete lineup of NBA and team-identified balls in all sizes.

The “bj League” Japanese professional basketball league has adopted the same-spec ball as their official game ball for the 2006-2007 season, which will start on November 4. The balls will be supplied to the bj League through a distribution system supported by a partnership agreement between Spalding, Itochu Fashion System Co., Ltd. (the master licensee for “SPALDING” since last season) and T.M. Sports Corporation, the official importer and sales representative in Japan for the game balls.

The first professional basketball league in Japan. In August 2004, the Niigata and Saitama teams left the Japan League Organization to become professional teams, and teams from Sendai, Tokyo, Osaka and Oita then joined them to start the first professional basketball league in Japan. The first regular season started with these 6 teams in November 2005. Each team played the other eight times for a total of 40 games per opponent with 120 games across the league. Players are selected during joint tryouts; each team obtains players through drafts, as well as through individual tryouts at each team. For the 2006-2007 season, which commences on November 4, 2006, two more new teams, from Toyama and Kagawa, will join the league making for an 8-team league.